ESPN: Saints’ Jimmy Graham faces more than $33,000 in fines for post-touchdown dunks

ESPN: Saints’ Jimmy Graham faces more than $33,000 in fines for post-touchdown dunks

Advocate staff photo by MATTHEW HINTON -- Saints tight end Jimmy Graham celebrates his second-quarter touchdown and draws a flag in a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans on Friday, Aug. 15, 2014.

Saints tight end Jimmy Graham may have found a way to spend some of his new $10 million-per-year contract.

Graham will be subject to more than $33,000 in fines from the NFL for his two crossbar dunks during Friday’s Saints-Titans preseason game, ESPN reported Monday at halftime of the Cleveland Browns-Washington Redskins game.

Graham dunked the ball over the crossbar after catching a 6-yard touchdown pass from Luke McCown with 8:30 left in the first quarter and again with 4:25 left in the second after he scored on a 19-yard pass from McCown.

The former University of Miami basketball player made the post-touchdown dunk a signature move after scoring touchdowns during his first four seasons with the Saints. But the NFL outlawed the dunk going into this season, lumping it in with other touchdown celebrations that include props. The league cited the potential for a delay of game to reset a crossbar being knocked off balance by a dunk, something that happened after some of Graham’s dunks last season. The decision has been referred to as the “Jimmy Graham rule.”

Saints coach Sean Payton was upset by his team’s 22 penalties for 184 yards against the Titans and took out some of his frustration on Graham after the second dunk. The two jawed briefly once Graham returned to the sideline.